so im with Optus (Australian here) and i am on a DSL plan.
Anyway my plan says it is running on 512K, im guessing that is connection speed.

now i have friends that are on the same plan as me, same ISP and yet their download speeds are double and some times triple to what i download at.

i download music at around 30-49 kbs / second. (i know so slow)

help me guys !

will rep for serious answers

lotusfreek

01-31-2011, 02:22 AM

well... a 512kb connection speed will download at around 62.5 KBps. It will vary a bit depending on connection and traffic on the ISP or your own network. That is how it works. Sometimes you will get a spike that is higher than your download speed, but the speed you are paying for is 62.5 KBps.

mullineux1

01-31-2011, 02:54 AM

yeah i will increase my plan to 1.5mb instead of 512k

boast

02-01-2011, 09:11 PM

for DSL, you first start off by connecting your modem directly to the NID (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_interface_device) to figure out if the house wiring may be an issue.

kevingzammit

02-01-2011, 10:47 PM

its usually the service provider. mine was slow for the longest time and then finallly picked up and was downloading at 500k/s . This happens when u move to a new area sometimes.

snako3000

02-01-2011, 11:14 PM

so im with Optus (Australian here) and i am on a DSL plan.
Anyway my plan says it is running on 512K, im guessing that is connection speed.

now i have friends that are on the same plan as me, same ISP and yet their download speeds are double and some times triple to what i download at.

i download music at around 30-49 kbs / second. (i know so slow)

help me guys !

will rep for serious answers

That is really slow.

The bandwidth is one of the issues, where everyone is accessing the internet at the same time with the same ISP. You will sometimes notice that it's faster at certain days and times than the others.

Another reason that this might happen is that if you live closer to the exchange box, you get faster connection. This is because the longer the wires (from the exchange box on the street to your house), the greater chance it looses signal, and it takes longer to transmit data too. If your friend lives closer to the box and you live further away, then this explains it.

Apart from looking into the ISPs to find the best plan, there's not a lot you can do at the moment. They all down to the ISP. However, if you are using good cabling at home, for example, using CAT6 STP ethernet cable (shielded) instead of CAT5 UTP (unshielded), then this reduces the chance of electrical interference, hence better data quality going in and out of your computer.

If you can post how your computers/home network setup, this would help looking into other areas that may be improved too.

Hope this helps.

mullineux1

02-02-2011, 01:24 AM

so i went to Optus to ask about my plan.
Since my plan is 5 years old they were shocked and said they only offer Wireless Broadband now in my area as Telstra own the lines and the line rental is through the roof these days.

So tomorrow i will be checking out Telstra's plans and bundling my home phone and internet.